My version of an unboxing video… [Minus the boring video]
Thanks to the folks at Alto Music, I’ve got a brand new Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim and EP-2350 Ting bundle.
Unzip that strip!
Both Riddim and Ting arrive in a brown box. Opening the brown box is like tearing into an overgrown Pocket Operator. It feels the same way.
TE EP-40 Riddim and EP-2350 Ting bundle
Riddim and Ting are taped together. The “Free Ting” tape is cute and I saved it. I’ll find something fun to do with it. 🙂
Free Ting and let it loose
Strip off the tape and there you have Ting in its own shrink-wrap. Riddim is shrink-wrapped, too.
TE EP-40 Riddim
The EP-40 ships in a box of its own. No secret, Teenage Engineering is an industrial design studio as much as it innovates consumer electronic devices. The EP-40 box is an example of TE’s sustainable formed paper packaging. Printed graphics reproduce quite well on this stuff.
TE EP-40 formed paper box
TE freely admit that the initial EP-133 packaging led to shipping damage. They learned their lesson. The EP-40 package has pass-through holes for the pot and slider knobs. The holes provide a lot of support around the knobs.
The paper case is good enough for light duty. If you take Riddim out of the studio into a club, you’ll want something stronger, padded and more protective. Still, the packaging is a nifty, visually attractive innovation.
The EP-2350 Ting packaging — printed brown cardboard — looks a bit spartan in comparison. None the less, Ting is well protected during shipping.
The bundle has an R. Crumb inspired reminder to update. Updating Riddim is relatively painless. Connect Riddim to your PC, run Chrome, open the Web-based TE Update Utility, allow the tool access to the Riddim via Web-MIDI, and the Update Utility does the rest.
The Web-based EP Sample Tool is easy to use, too. Like the Update Tool, you must grant access to Riddim over Web-MIDI (USB). This is a great way to explore the factory samples and pad assignments.
The EP Sample Tool does project-specific and full backups. I made a copy of everything because I will eventually toss some of the factory content and install my own construction kits.
The EP-40 Riddim is pre-loaded with nine projects. Eight projects are reggae/dub. The ninth project is a hyper-active P.O. style project — readily tossable unless you are really into P.O. Oh, yeah, the initial factory content occupies 92MBytes leaving 36MBytes free.
My one gripe — TE needs to increase the font size throughout the EP Sample Tool. I have to read sample sizes and free space with a magnifying glass on my 4K monitor. Please.
Love the written word and pictures? Much faster than watching a ten minute unboxing video. 🙂
Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski